APOTHEK

Pair up a self-confessed studio perfectionist with a traditional songwriter and the results could be a long time in coming. Fortunately, Apothek’s debut album is finally out and it was worth the wait. MusicTech catches up with the nerd half to test him on his studio knowledge…

Apothek is a Norwegian duo comprising a self-con fessed studio nerd, Nils Martin Larsen, and songwriter Morten Myklebust. The band has already attracted the attention of the likes of The Guardian to be touted as this year’s big thing. But with such a meticulous attention to studio detail, the tracks that caused a stir at the beginning of this year – Family and Waiting For The Thunder – could well have been forgotten with a wait for a follow-up album.

As Nils says: “I’m really used to sitting for 12 hours in the studio making just one tiny detail of a song, whereas Morten is from a more traditional background, where the track is the track and the song is the most important thing all of the time.” Luckily, the resulting album, the self-titled Apothek, is here and is as perfect as it was long in inception. MusicTech catches up with Nils to talk technology and whether one sound is worth a whole day…

MusicTech: So how did Apothek come about?

Nils Martin Larsen and Morten Mykleburst of Apothek

NML: We are Nils and Morten and we’re based in Oslo. We came into the music scene from two widely different directions. Morten comes from a songwriter background and has his own career doing more acoustic stuff. I come from a more studio-focused and compositional background and am more of a studio nerd than he is. I’ve run a studio in Oslo with a friend for the past six years, so we both came into the music scene quite gradually and naturally from two different backgrounds.

THE APOTHEK PROCESS

MT: You say you pay a lot of attention to production – where did that ethos come from?

NML: I think the key to it all is hard work and having a plan to focus on. ‘No shortcuts’ is probably our main motto. When it comes to songwriting and production, we really want to feel like we’ve explored every angle before agreeing the track is finished. And setting a few tripwires for each other along the way seems to help us from going down the same route each time.

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Dec-16

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In this issue of MusicTech it's tips, tips and more tips… and a free calendar!
Tips are always good and and this time, we’ve gone a little further: we’ve asked studios across the world, big and small, to offer their
nuggets of wisdom. And they have, in their droves. So we have over 70 pro tips plus a calendar full of pictures of the best studios in the world! Elsewhere we have reviews of the plug-in that does your mixing, the new and rather incredible Keyscape from Spectrasonics and the latest modular synths – both reviews and tutorial. Add the usual software workshops, and over a 1GB of free samples and it's an end of year issue not to be missed!